Regrets…

 The topic of regrets comes up every now and then in conversations. And so far, there is not much in my life that I regret. Having had to leave my daughter and son in Austria when I migrated to the US after the divorce was the only thing that would come to mind…

Today, I realized another thing that I regret…

When we came home to the hostal this evening after closing the restaurant we found all the guests gathered around the kitchen table chatting, having fun, planning the evening together. They decided to go to the beach together to see if they might encounter luminescent plankton… What a great experience for them! Different nations, different walks of life, joining on an adventure together!

On another day, guests, volunteers, worker, and us - all sharing a meal

This makes me so happy! As this was the big goal behind the effort of building this hostal! All the hard work over the last three years, the stresses and challenges, it all paid off! The experiment succeeded! Yeay!

So what’s the regret, you might ask. Well, most of my career I was a consultant/contractor. I was always travelling. And almost always solo. I used to say, the only bad thing about this type of work is, that I have to eat alone every night…

Today I realized, I should have looked for hostals, instead of hotels!!! Then I would always have come home to a bunch of interesting and interested people, instead of an empty hotel room. I could have shared the meal time with other travellers, exchanged stories and ideas, built friendships with people from all over the planet! Not having thought of this earlier, that is my other regret!

About sustainability and environmental impact of Hostal/Homestay Un Mundo

When designing and building our Hostal/Homestay Un Mundo in Santa Catalina, Soná, Veraguas, Panama I had sustainability and environmental impact in the forefront of my mind. 

there’s only 1 world. we have only 1 planet to live on. we’re only 1 people. let’s all work together, not against each other!

Hostalworld, which is one of the booking site on which we are listed, sent an email today encouraging their partners to think more about these topics. The recommendations they gave are good, yet only a small part of what we tried to do here. I thought I write a little bit about these topics various ways we made sustainability and impact a driving and deciding factor…

They also did some research comparing hostals with hotels, and found, based on their estimates, that hotels have 4 times as much of a negative impact. This report can be found here. The exact number, of course, is dependent on the quality of the estimates. But, it’s pretty obvious that if the average persons per room (and bathroom) is higher, the per bed amount of material and energy used for construction is smaller, and operations and maintenance of that space is less involved as well.

In our case, though, we applied a building style and used materials during construction that have a much better sustainability score than the typical or average construction.

Here some aspects:

* We don’t use concrete walls, but wood - concrete is a very strong CO2 source. Also, concrete soaks up the heat of the sun, turning rooms into baking ovens. Wood, on the other hand, acts as an insulation!

* Our walls are not solid, but are mostly thin lattice with quite wide gaps. There’s always a breeze in the room. And the cool night air can easily enter the room. To protect against mosquitoes we wrapped the whole house in insect screens.

* Roofs in Panama are mostly made of sheet metal. Ever touched some metal that was laying in the sun for a while? It gets very quickly very hot! If the roof touches the concrete all that heat gets absorbed and stored by the concrete. We have the roof far removed from concrete. Although the mansard apartment gets very hot during the day, by 18:00 it’s already cooled down enough to be comfortable again. And during the night I need a sheet to cover because it’s too cold without it!

* Our wood was resourced at the closest sawmill, which gets its wood from the forest behind their house. With that the transportation distances for the wood was minimal.

all the wood is sourced locally or repurposed

* We use only local wood (except the doors, which are prefabricated, made of pine, and transported). For walls that can get wet from the rain we use teak. For other purposes we used whatever type the sawmill had available that day.

* While we bought lots of normal boards, too, we also used many “chapones” - these are the first pieces of wood sawed off a log. They are rounded and with bark. Usually, these boards are discarded. We removed the bark, and cut lattice from them, with which we built the side walls. That wood, thus, is not rotting putting the carbon in the form of CO2 back into the atmosphere, instead the carbon stays bound as wood in our walls.

* Virtually all other hotels and hostals in the area need air conditioning to achieve a comfortable sleeping environment. We don’t need a/c - thus, our electricity bill is around 40$/month, instead of 300$ or more.

* The high humidity in the air causes mold and mildew, if there’s no air is not moving. Usually, people fight this by using harsh chemicals frequently on all surfaces. By having a very airy wall design, the air is always moving, so we do not need to apply such chemicals - which is healthier for the inhabitants and better for the environment, too.

large windows add to the breeziness of the rooms

long time no post…

 I haven’t written anything in a long while! I guess, it was just too busy a time, the last few months…

With mid December the rainy season came to an end, and with the dry season came the season for tourists. On the northern hemisphere, this is the cold time, and many people flock to the tropics to avoid the ice and snow. 

By mid January we had our first dormitory, two of the toilets and one of the showers ready, so we decided to try to put it on Hostalworld and AirBnB. 

curtains to add privacy

very rustic, but functional

Whao! We very quickly got many guests! And, what is even more exciting, many of them extended several days beyond what they booked!

Even though we still were working on the second, larger dormitory, and there was a lot of dust and materials between the entrance to the floor and the ready dormitory, the feedback we received was very positive. 

upstairs are dormitories, downstairs a private room and dormitory for workers and volunteers

I tried to build in a way that allows us to get by without air condition and that folks are not locked away and isolated from the world. There are big spaces between the lattice that make up the wall on one side, and on the other side there’s more window than wall. We wrapped the whole house in mosquito netting, to ensure that no insects crawl around the people while sleeping. Still, there’s a breeze in the room all the time, and in the night the cool, fresh air fills the room. 

It all was an experiment. I am happy it worked out well! Most of our guests appreciate the design a lot. You can hear the sounds of the night like in a tent, but with the comfort of a real bed…

Having many guests in the hostal, often many guests also in the evenings at the restaurant, and continuing the work at the hostal, driving to the 2 1/2 hr away Santiago to find materials for the construction and ingredients for the restaurant, it was a super busy time!

There’s much more to talk about! I guess, I’ll write some more posts later…

sunset at the village beach

For now: greetings from lovely Santa Catalina, Soná, Veraguas, Panamá…

Trump - beloved the world around…

There’s a custom for new year’s celebrations in Panama to build a puppet and burn it around midnight on 31st of December.

Well, the people in Panama didn’t appreciate Trump’s last brainless comment in a string of such, where he mused about taking control of the Panama Canal. I happen to drive by a pair of such puppets today, ready to be burnt…

 

On first sight maybe amusing. But knowing how Panamanians feel about the canal, this is a clear signal to Trump about what would expect him should he be stupid enough (which he often proved to be) to try to follow through with this idea: All the people of Panama resisting! 

Panama has no military. But he would have to fight all the civilians! Men, women, and children! Would his military comply with his orders? Would turn them into war criminals right away… If they would, how would the Europeans react? How would Russia react to a break in Nato? How would the Chinese react? 

Many questions, which nobody at this time can answer for sure. But I hope we never have to find out in reality…

Sounds a bit sarcastic, but still: happy new year! Happy new quarter century!  

who needs a spare tire…

I recently read somewhere that newer cars don’t have a spare tire anymore. Instead, there’s a pump you can plug in to the cigarette lighter. Well… Maybe that’s a useful alternative if you live in a place where roads are well maintained! Here in Panama a spare tire is absolutely necessary!

I don’t remember ever getting a flat tire while driving. Ever! In 40 years of driving! Well, no, in 39 years…In the last two years I needed to put on the spare tire 12 times! And replace - that means buy! - a new tire 8 times!!!

Why? Because the roads in Panama are treacherous! Even the autopistas around Panama City and the interamerican highway have many potholes, which haven’t been fixed in a long time. The heavy rains, of course, are not helping the situation, but wash out these holes further and further…

The side roads are sometimes even worse! And the last 17 km of the road to Santa Catalina are, well, a disgrace, to put it mildly! I had to replace the suspensions on both cars sine living here! Also a first in my life!

So, you drive on what appears to be a road in reasonably good condition, and suddenly there’s one of those monster holes! With experience (of which I have PLENTY!), it is often possible to avoid getting a tire hitting that hole by performing an emergency slalom move. But sometimes it’s not possible - because there’s a car next to you, or because there are several such holes and the best you can do is to choose the one (or ones) that are the smallest problem, or because you noticed the severity of the hole too late.

And when that happens, the tire (or two or four) get a big bang squeeze against the rim. And all too often the sidewall of the tire gets damaged.

Now, if you get a nail or screw in the running pane of the tire, it’s bad enough. But that’s very easy to fix! I, and many other drivers, carry the plugs in the car, to be able to fix that kind of problem anywhere along the road. Plus a 12V pump is also in both of my cars. 

But, when the tire‘s sidewall is damaged you cannot fix it reliably.

Thus, an otherwise brand new tire needs to be discarded and replaced!

That’s what happened to me already 8 times over the last 2 years…

Funny! I stopped buying higher quality - i. e. higher priced - tires, and am now getting the cheapest I can find! I wonder why? If I even have a choice - most of the little “llanterias” (tire repair stores) don’t carry much options; you’re lucky if they have any tire at the size you need! And if they don’t, well, then they vulcanize your tire’s sidewall and send you on your way…

Luckily, the speed limits here are very low, so even if the tire blows while you’re driving, you should be able to safely stop the car… At least, so I hope…

A related further adventure started about six weeks ago. A tire blew on my Prius, and as usual I put on the donut. However, on the way to the llateria - which is about 60 km (almost 40 miles), that 20 year old tire gave up the ghost, too… Hitchhiking with the broken original tire the rest of the way, and back, is standard procedure… The real problem, though, is: where to get a replacement donut?!?

Impossible to find a tire that fits on the donut rim. It’s not a radial tire, but the old fashioned technology. First I thought of visiting junk yards to find an old Prius from which I can source such a donut. But then it dawned on me, that it probably won’t be much of use anymore - being also 20 years old, and having been exposed to sun and rain for who knows how long in the yard…

Alright, so let me see if I find a rim that’s the same size as the regular rims, and put a regular tire on it. It won’t be possible to put that tire in the space where the donut is, because the donut has a slightly smaller diameter and is only about 2/3 of the width. But, hey, I just put it behind the driver seat. Being on the road here without a tire is highly unadvisable! And usually I don’t have more than 2 passengers anyhow… Panama helps you improve your improvisation skills!

About four weeks ago I found and bought such a rim, and had a tire installed on it, too. Yeay! I’m safe! At least so I thought…

Yesterday, on the way back from Panama City, I hit a monster hole again - on the Centennial Bridge across the Panama Canal (center lane, direction leaving the city, at the gap between the bridge and the bridgehead; for those who are travelling that stretch…). I stopped and checked, but all tires seemed to be ok… 

90 km down the road, however, one tire blew… again! 

Alright, first try to simply pump it up again - maybe it’s just the seal between rim and tire that leaked. No such luck! So, unpack the loaded car to get at the car-jacks - the Prius is so low I need to lift it in stages using two hydraulic jacks - take wheel with torn tire off, put on the new rim…

But, when the spare wheel was on, it turns out that the nuts’ outside diameter is larger than the holes on that damn “pretty” rim!!!

So back to hitchhicking, buying new tire, hitchhiking back, taking new rim off and store it, and putting on wheel with new tire… 

And later trying to find nuts whose inner diameter fits the bolts, and whose outer diameter fits the holes on the rim. Now, the nut loosing tool doesn’t fit anymore either! So need to buy a socket that serves as adaptor between the fancy nuts and the loosening tool… And find a good spot in the car to carry these items around, for when the next tire gives up the ghost…

I’m hoping, that new spare wheel actually will serve its purpose… we’ll see…

rain, rain, rain - this time in Panama!

Well, rainy season it is! The last week and a half we had A LOT of rain. When we came back from Chiriquí we found the restaurant flooded. After driving most of the day, we spent the evening cleaning out the flood.

the soil in the dining terrace floor already told the story

the space with the bar is the lowes part of the house - today a pool, a muddy one

The same night, it flooded again!

And finally, on Saturday, it came down in buckets again - this time in the evening while we were there, so I could see where and how the water got into the restaurant. We worked all evening: Iris made 14 pizzas, thankfully all but 2 were to-go orders. My trusted worker Wilvert and me tried to broom out and scoop up the water as it came inside.

On Monday, we increased the height of the separating wall all around, and dug little trenches to entice the water to take other routes than to flood the restaurant.

Wilvert, next to our piece of ingenuity… 🤪

Well, today, it’s coming down again in buckets! 

The view from the front terrace at the hostal

So glad we have worked on the restaurant already! It would definitely be flooded again with all that rain!

The little riverbed we cut into the terrace floor here at the hostal works, too. Through it, the water that comes down the hill in the back of the house is leaving without causing damage.

Rain runoff from hill no longer floods the house

River bed crossing the terrace

On the other side of the property, another river develops from the runoff of the other hill. Also running down in an orderly fashion. Yeay! Just on the bottom of the property we might need to provide more guidance, I guess…

Surrounded by water… 😝

When you don’t have to worry about flooding, it is actually a very beautiful thing! Soothing sounds, feeling of being protected and safe - I could watch and listen to the rain for hours! Yet, it rains like this only for 1/2 hour, then quiets down for a few hours, before the next downpour…

Priorities - or - short term vs long term thinking

With a daily wage of 20$ for 8 hours of hard work in the sun, the three top priorities of locals when building a house are how much it costs, how much they have to pay for it, and how much money is needed. The rest is pretty much irrelevant!

I am not swimming in money myself, but, I am able to consider other factors and arrange priorities a little differently with our house.

My thought is, construction of the house is taking a few months. But you’ll live in it many, many years. So, if you make the construction easier and cheaper, you get the benefit during these few months while building. If, however, you make maintainability and adjustability a higher priority, you reap the benefits for all the years you live there.

Of course, a company who builds homes to sell, doesn’t care about anything after the sale. But I do!

Here are some of the topics that I considered, and the ideas and solutions I came up with:

Electrical and water pipes:

They are usually inside the walls. When the walls are sticks with drywall on top it already is a lot of trouble to fix any problems with these pipes or to extend them in some way. Here in Panama, the walls are concrete. If you need to open one to get at pipes, you need a jackhammer! And whatever was not yet broken about the pipe is surely going to be completely destroyed once the wall is open!

I chose to put my pipes outside the wall, and cover them up with wooden cladding, which is fastened by screws, not nails. If you need to get at them, simply unscrew three, four screws and there you go!

electrical pipes covered behind wood

Waterpipes visible, thus in copper instead of pvc

Drain clean-outs:

There’s no maintenance issue more troublesome to me than clogged drain pipes. Except, clogged drainpipes that are not accessible! 

For that reason, i put clean-out plugs everywhere! Every toilet and shower drain has such a access point right outside, on the other side of the bathroom wall. On every corner and every endpoint of the main drain pipe there’s an access point as well.

zoom in to see the access points for the snake

I put a lot of effort into ensuring the drains are all following the 2-3% declination rule, so I’m thinking (hoping) I won’t have many issues of clogged pipes. But if there’s one, at least it’s easy to get the snake to where the clog is!

Wall coloring:

painting your house is a very costly and/or work intense job. Having concrete walls, it’s possible to avoid having to paint your house for as long as you live! The trick is, using “tinta” with white concrete. That way, the wall “is” colored by itself, and does not need coats of paint. No paint, no need to renew paint!

I used yellow tinta - it goes well with the green of the land and the red of the roof and tile floor

Sun, rain, and high humidity:

There are three big issues in the tropics with which your building has to cope: Sun, rain, and humidity.

The sun heats up roof and walls, making the inside be like a baking oven - if your architecture doesn’t have a way to get rid of the heat easily and without lots of equipment and energy effort.

I raised the roof a bit above the concrete, and leave the space between them free, so hot air can easily escape to be replaced by fresh, cooler air. 

Secondly, I put a wooden ceiling on top of the rooms. That insulates the concrete walls and the air inside the room from the heat radiation of the hot roof.

sufficient space between roof and concrete

No need for expensive - to buy, to install, and to operate - air conditioning systems!

The frequent, sometimes very heavy rain, turns any terrain into either a river (if it’s sloped) or a lake (if it’s level), or both!

I put the slab on top of a thick layer of gravel, which lets water run through easily. In addition, I put drainage pipes around the perimeter of the house, so that most of water is running of right away and not even getting to the gravel cushion.

notice the canal for the drainage pipes 

Slab is floating on thick cushion of gravel

No need for sump-pumps or similar equipment to deal with the abundance of water!

The humidity facilitates the growth of mold and mildew. In my experience, once the air is not moving, mold is developing very quickly. And once you have it, it’s virtually impossible to get rid of! 

I put large windows, and designed them to be able to be opened completely. That way, it is easy to keep the air moving in the rooms - simply leave the windows open…

Side windows can by tilted up - 100% open, sash needs no space as it hangs close to the ceiling

front window is 1,8 by 3m (6 by 10 ft)

No need for expensive dehydration equipment!

No systems installed, means the least amount of maintenance effort required!

Summarizing 

I tried to build a sustainable, easy to maintain, comfortable, and healthy home. I’m sure there are many more topics and ideas that could be considered and dealt with. But so far, it feels really good living in the space!

tranquil, sustainable, comfortable, affordable tropical living